Flora Yin Wong - Cold Reading

Resident Advisor

The idea of making a pact with the devil has a long musical history, and usually follows the same storyline: a musician sells their soul in order to gain some i..

A Closer Listen

It may have been a mere coincidence of the calendar that saw Flora Yin Wong release her second album within a few days of Halloween, but if a record captured the spirit of the spooky season this year, then it was Cold Reading. There are moments of disquiet, misdirection and shadowy atmosphere spread across most of its half-hour duration – the calm and beauty don’t arrive until the final tracks.

This disorientation that the listener experiences with Cold Reading is, of course, intentional and stunningly realised. There are ghosts and spirits present throughout the compositions – whether it is the clattering metallic percussion of “Banjar” (the sound of a poltergeist throwing instruments across the room perhaps) or the disembodied voice that appears on “Hands”. The speech ends in silence – ‘the damage is done,’ he utters – and there’s more than a hint of accusatory menace in the voice.

The mood is set by the opening “All My Dreams Are Nightmares,” which is woven around the theme of Giuseppe Tartini’s Violin Sonata in G Minor. This piece is also known as the “Devil’s Trill Sonata” – a composition that came to Tartini in a dream and was never fully realised when he transcribed it onto paper. Its ghostly qualities are drawn out in this arrangement, which shares a sensibility with the work of The Caretaker. It is easy to imagine Tartini being haunted by this piece as it echoes across the centuries.

It’s the ghosts of the past that are found throughout Cold Reading, as the album was inspired by Flora’s trip to East and Southeast Asia – from a Bazi reading in Hong Kong to a solitary stay in a haunted house in Kyoto to nights in mountain temples with South Korean monks. It’s easy to imagine the sense of dislocation experienced in travelling in places that your wider family knows but is alien to you. Flora describes feeling “an overwhelming sense of rootlessness” during the trip, which was probably the opposite of what was intended. Rather than feeling closer to her ancestors, she just felt further away; it is that uncertainty that is felt throughout most of the album.

There is a sort of resolution with the closing two tracks – “Beautiful Crisis” is underpinned by a taut, plucked and processed guitar, which fades into the sounds of waves like the sun sinking into the sea. “Nea Selini” builds on a two-note piano figure which gradually evolves amongst the edgy buzzing of metallic insects; an ending which leaves the listener unsettled. Its brevity means there is no conclusion, just a fade to black. There is a lot going on in this track and throughout Cold Reading. The ten parts feel coiled and dense; the album’s duration is brief, but if it was any longer, then the listening experience would be diluted. It may be born of a crisis, but the results are beautiful. (Jeremy Bye)

Available here